Silicon takes the strain

Some people work better under stress: major players in the semiconductor industry are betting on the same being true for silicon. The semiconductor industry is investigating a new way of making the transistors that are the basic building blocks for almost all integrated circuits (ICs). It promises to squeeze more device performance out of current manufacturing processes, or to get the same device performance using less power. The technique is known as 'strained silicon' and has become a hot topic in semiconductor research in the past two years. In 2002 eight papers on strained silicon were presented at the International Electron Devices Meeting, a key research conference. This year there will be 16. What strained silicon does is allow you to go faster without going smaller. This may present some relief for an industry that is under pressure from the exponentially rising costs of its manufacturing processes.